Women with weapons : the image of female brigand in Italian literature and popular speeches : some examples

The unification of Italy in 1861 caused disappointment and frustration among the representatives of the lower social class living in the Mezzogiorno areas. The new political project brought benefits to the bourgeoisie vast-land owning classes while the peasants remained in poor life conditions. As a consequence, a spontaneous resistant movement appeared called the brigandage (brigantaggio). Its aim was to launch attacks against the Italian authorities. Among the brigands there were also the Italian women, throughout the last decades forgotten by the Italian historiography. They performed different social roles both traditional and uncommon ones. Some of them became chieftains ruling the rest of the band. The aim of the article is to present the phenomenon of the Southern-Italian brigandage after the Risorgimento period, from the feminine perspective. Through the analyses of the Italian literature, historiography and popular stories the article tends to reconstruct the image of the “feminine brigandage” focusing on: common stereotypes enrooted in the official discourse, the division of social roles between men and women and their implications, the social obstacles for fighting and emancipated women in that époque, the question of double (masculine-feminine) identity